Organ Historical Society
The RCCO
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Wallace & Company, Opus 78 (2018) | Providence Canadian Reformed Church | Ancaster, Ontario

Photo: Len Levasseur
Main Festival Artists

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Stefani Bedin
Stefani Bedin is a Doctor of Musical Arts degree candidate at the University of Toronto, where she also completed the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance and the Bachelor of Music degree in Music History and Theory (Honours) with a minor in historical keyboard. She studies organ under the tutelage of Prof. Kevin Komisaruk. Stefani’s doctoral research explores the impact of twentieth-century liturgical reforms, especially those of the Second Vatican Council, on organ music. During the 2022-2023 academic year, Stefani was a keyboard harmony course instructor at the Faculty of Music, having previously been a teaching assistant for music history and keyboard courses. She is also an accomplished pianist and obtained an ARCT in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 2013. She is the recipient of several awards including the Gerhard Brunzema Graduate Fellowship (2022), the Ontario Arts Council’s New Generation Artists’ Grant (2022) and the RCCO’s John Goss Memorial Scholarship (2020) and Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship (2019). Stefani is the Associate Organist of St. Basil’s Catholic Parish, the collegiate church of the University of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College. Committed to sharing the pipe organ’s music with diverse audiences, Stefani has given several solo recitals and is the vice-president of the RCCO Toronto Centre’s executive.

For more information please visit: https://sbedinorganist.ca
Stefani Bedin is a Doctor of Musical Arts degree candidate at the University of Toronto.
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Chelsea Chen
Chelsea Chen’s dynamic playing has taken her to the far corners of the world. Her solo concerts offer a unique mix of traditional organ repertoire along with piano/orchestral transcriptions and contemporary music. The Los Angeles Times has praised her “rare musicality” and “lovely lyrical grandeur,” and a compositional style that is “charming” and “irresistible.”

Recent highlights include performing as soloist with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (a traditional Chinese instrument ensemble), the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, and the Lou Harrison Festival Rutgers Orchestra at Trinity Wall Street. Recent and upcoming recital venues include the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas Texas, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York City, and Christ Cathedral, Garden Grove CA. She will also present concerts in Taiwan and northern Europe.

Chelsea originally hails from San Diego, where her formative music teachers were organists Leslie Robb (St. Paul’s Lutheran, San Diego) and Monte Maxwell (U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis) and pianists Baruch Arnon (New York City), Jane Bastien and Lori Bastien Vickers (San Diego). She studied under Paul Jacobs and John Weaver at The Juilliard School in New York, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She also won the John Erskine Prize for academic and artistic achievement, awarded to one graduate per year. After college she moved to Taiwan under a Fulbright scholarship, whereupon she collected folk songs and wrote organ solo and chamber music. She returned to the U.S. to study with Thomas Murray in the Artist Diploma program at Yale University. From 2013-2017 she served as Organist and Concert Series Director at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale. She currently resides in New York City as Artist-in-Residence at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church.

Ms. Chen has recorded multiple CDs: Reveries (2011) at Bethel University, Live at Heinz Chapel at the 2005 Convention of the American Institute of Organbuilders, Eastern Treasures with violinist Lewis Wong in 2010, and Live at Coral Ridge in 2014. Her playing has been aired on CNN.com, “Pipedreams” from American Public Media, Hawaii Public Radio, and Taiwan’s Good News Radio. Committed to new music, she has premiered works by composers throughout the world including Ola Gjeilo (Norway/USA), Yui Kitamura (Japan/USA), Paul Desenne (Venezuela), Roderick Gorby (USA), Vincent Rone (USA), and Viviane Waschbüsch (Germany). Her compositions are available exclusively from Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc. She performs regularly with cellist Joseph Lee. Together they released an album entitled “Explorations for Cello and Organ” in 2018. Learn more about her at chelseachen.com.
Chelsea Chen’s dynamic playing has taken her to the far corners of the world.


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Ken Cowan
Regarded as one of North America’s finest concert organists and praised for his dazzling artistry, impeccable technique, and imaginative programming by audiences and critics alike, Ken Cowan maintains a rigorous performing schedule that takes him to major concert venues in America, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

Recent feature performances have included appearances at Verizon Hall in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonie, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Vienna Konzerthaus, Maison Symphonique in Montreal, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and Walt Disney Concert Hall. In addition, Mr. Cowan has been a featured artist in recent years at national conventions of the American Guild of Organists in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Houston. He has performed at many regional conventions of the AGO and has been featured at several conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Numerous critically acclaimed compact disc recordings by Mr. Cowan are available. Most recent, serving as organ accompanist, is Maurice Duruflé: Complete Choral Works (Signum Records), recorded with Robert Simpson and the Houston Chamber Choir, for which the Houston Chamber Choir was awarded a GRAMMY award in 2020 for Best Choral Recording; Dynamic Duo, (Pro Organo), featuring Mr. Cowan and Bradley Welch in a program of original works and transcriptions for duo organists, performed on the monumental Casavant organ at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX; Ken Cowan plays The Great Organ (Pro Organo), recorded on the newly-restored organ at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City; Works of Franz Liszt (JAV), recorded on the Michael Quimby organ at First Baptist church in Jackson Mississippi; and Ken Cowan Plays Romantic Masterworks (Raven), recorded on the 110-rank Schoenstein organ at First Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mr. Cowan also joined organist Justin Bischof in the 1999 world-premiere recording of American composer Aaron Miller’s Double Concerto for organ, recorded with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra on the Kleuker organ in the Tonhalle, Zurich, Switzerland (Ethereal Recordings). Many of Mr. Cowan’s recordings and live performances have been regularly featured on the nationally distributed radio show PIPEDREAMS from American Public Media.

A native of Thorold, Ontario, Canada, Mr. Cowan received the Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, studying organ with Thomas Murray. Prior to attending Yale, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with John Weaver. Following initial studies with his father, David, his principal teacher during his high school years was James Bigham, Music Director at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, in Buffalo, NY.

In 2012 Mr. Cowan joined the keyboard faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he is Professor of Organ and head of the organ program. He is additionally Organist and Artist-in-Residence at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, TX. Previous positions have included Associate Professor of Organ at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ, where he was awarded the 2008 Rider University Distinguished Teaching Award, and Associate Organist and Artist in Residence at Saint Bartholomew’s Church in New York City.
Regarded as one of North America’s finest concert organists and praised for his dazzling artistry, impeccable technique, and imaginative programming by audiences and critics alike, Ken Cowan maintains a rigorous performing schedule that takes him to major concert venues in America, Canada, Europe, and Asia.
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Robert Dixon
Robert Dixon is active as an organist and choral conductor with experience on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in the UK, he held positions at Gloucester Cathedral, Jesus College Cambridge, and the City Church of Oxford, and he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists aged 19. Having moved to Toronto in 2018 and worked at several churches across the city, Robert currently directs the music at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, where he conducts the award-winning Gallery Choir and plays the renowned Healey Willan Memorial Organ. Robert has performed live on BBC Radio 4 and Switzerland’s Radio SRF 2 Kultur, and recorded three CDs with the choirs of Jesus College Cambridge on the Signum label. He combines his work at SMM with the role of Chief Development Officer for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and serves on the board of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.
Robert Dixon is active as an organist and choral conductor with experience on both sides of the Atlantic.


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John Paul Farahat
Canadian organist John Paul Farahat leads a dual career as performer and pedagogue, committed to music performance and improvisation in all its forms through the organ and its music.

John Paul’s notable past solo concert venues include the Cathédrale Notre-Dame (Paris), Westminster Abbey (London), the Cathédrale Saint-Etienne (Toulouse), Saint Paul’s Cathedral (London), the Eglise St-Eustache (Paris), the Eglise Saint-Michel (Chamonix), the Eglise Saint-Sulpice (Paris), Coventry Cathedral (England), the University of Saint Andrews (Scotland), Trinity College (Cambridge), Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (New York), Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), the Basilica of the National Shrine (Washington DC), Saint Patrick’s Cathedral (New York), and the Cathedral of Saint Hyacinthe (Québec). Festival performances have included the International Organ Festival Toulouse Les Orgues, the Organ Festival of Chamonix, Organ Festival Canada, as well as the ORGANIX Festival.

In addition to teaching through his private studio, John Paul is on faculty as Organ Instructor at St. Michael’s Choir School, Toronto. He has served for juries and examinations of the Royal Canadian College of Organists and is Chair of Scholarships and Bursaries. He sits on the Board of Directors as Chair of Advocacy.

Deeply passionate about the field of improvisation, John Paul authored Precomposed and Extemporized: Rediscovering the Life and Improvisatory Work of Canadian Organist Victor Togni (1935 – 1965), cataloguing hundreds of previously-unknown archival documents and connecting Togni to his teachers, including Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, Jean Langlais, Olivier Messiaen, Marcel Dupré, Roland Falcinelli, and Fernando Germani among others. Precomposed and Extemporized includes several reconstructed improvisations from historical tapes, and an analysis of the musical language and improvisatory forms of Togni, bringing to life the improvisations of Canada’s preeminent organist-improviser of the mid-20th century.

John Paul Farahat holds the post of Director of Music and Principal Organist of St. Basil’s Church, the collegiate church of the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. He conducts the fully professional Schola Cantorum as well as the Parish Choir and oversees the historic Casavant Frères organ Op. 800/2578. He further serves on the team of organists for Saint Michael’s Cathedral Basilica.

He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance degree from the University of Toronto. He studied organ, improvisation, and harpsichord with Kevin Komisaruk, and received additional instruction from Olivier Latry, Peter Williams, Martin Haselböck, Noam Sivan, and Thomas Murray. Visit www.farahat.ca for more information.
Canadian organist John Paul Farahat leads a dual career as performer and pedagogue, committed to music performance and improvisation in all its forms through the organ and its music.
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Philip J. Fillion
Philip J. Fillion was appointed Cathedral Organist at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Michael, Toronto, in June 2022. He accompanies the many choirs of St. Michael Choir School at three sung Masses each weekend, in rehearsal, in concert, and on annual national and international tours. He was previously Assistant Director of Music and Organist at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Dallas, one of the largest congregations in the Episcopal Church. There he accompanied the church’s four choirs, played for services, and assisted in the administration of the music program, particularly by training the youngest choristers. From 2017-2020, he was Organist and Director of Music at St. Mary’s Church in Auburn, NY. There, he directed the Choir and Schola Gregoriana, trained high school students in Gregorian chant, and accompanied the four weekend masses on the recently-restored 1890 Barckhoff and 1872 House organs (recipients of OHS Citations 396 and 397). He has also served as organist at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, Grace Church in Newark, NJ, and as choral accompanist at Elmhurst College in Chicago. He has given world premieres of works by Philip Moore, Cecilia McDowall, Angela Kraft Cross, and Todd Wilson, and accompanied choirs in tours of the United States and Europe. In 2017, he earned his master’s degree in sacred music and organ at Westminster Choir College, where he studied organ with Daryl Robinson, and his bachelor’s degree in organ performance at Wheaton College in 2015.
Philip J. Fillion was appointed Cathedral Organist at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Michael, Toronto, in June 2022.


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Aaron James
Aaron James is the Director of Music for the Toronto Oratory of St Philip Neri, and a Sessional Lecturer in organ at the University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and was the 2011 winner of the RCCO National Organ Playing Competition; he now serves the College as national Chair of Examinations, and is a past president of RCCO Toronto Centre. He holds doctoral degrees in organ performance and musicology from the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.
Aaron James is the Director of Music for the Toronto Oratory of St Philip Neri, and a Sessional Lecturer in organ at the University of Toronto.
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Jean-Willy Kunz
Jean-Willy Kunz is the first Organist-in-Residence of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In addition to performances with the Orchestra and as a soloist in recital, he supervises the development and showcasing of the OSM’s Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique at the Maison symphonique de Montréal. His most recent performances include concerts with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Violons du Roy, with saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and with singer-songwriters Pierre Lapointe, Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright. A significant portion of his discography reflects multiple musical influences: Symphonie et créations pour orgue et orchestre, with the OSM (2016 Juno Award-winning album) ; Impressions for organ, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, double bass and percussions; Punkt, with Pierre Lapointe, and André Gagnon Baroque, for harpsichord and symphony orchestra. Jean-Willy Kunz is Professor of Organ at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and Artistic Director of the Canadian International Organ Competition.
Jean-Willy Kunz is the first Organist-in-Residence of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.


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Nathan Laube
Nathan Laube is a leading performer and pedagogue who is beloved around the world. His extensive recital career includes major venues spanning four continents, with appearances at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Maison Radio France in Paris, Auditorium Maurice Ravel in Lyon, and the Sejong Center in Seoul. Highlight performances in the USA include Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; Verizon Hall, Philadelphia; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; The Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas TX; Overture Hall, Madison, WI; the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, TN; the Kauffman Center in Kansas City, MO; and Spivey Hall in Morrow, GA. He has performed in the most famous churches and cathedrals of Europe, including Notre-Dame Cathedral and Saint-Sulpice in Paris, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Frauenkirche in Dresden, and the Berlin Dom. In August 2022 he performed a solo organ recital for the prestigious BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall in London.

He is regularly called upon to inaugurate important organs across the world, including the Canterbury Cathedral (UK) and King’s College Chapel, Cambridge (UK), Moscow’s new Zaryadye Concert Hall (RU), and Concert Hall in Göteborg (SE). In October 2020 he had the honor of performing the first solo recital on Austria’s largest pipe organ built by the Rieger at St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom) in Vienna. In the USA, dedications have included the new C.B. Fisk organ at The Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh, NC, and the restored Aeolian-Skinner at Northrop Auditorium at University of Minnesota. In 2022 he will inaugurate several notable instruments, including St. Paul’s Cathedral in Birmingham, AL, and the famous Harrison & Harrison at York Minster (UK). Passionate about organ design and aesthetics, he also serves on reference groups for new instruments, including the new Rieger organ for the Concert Hall in Göteborg, Sweden.

Mr. Laube is a regular guest at notable music festivals around the world as a performer and pedagogue: the Berlin Orgelsommer (DE), the Stuttgart Internationaler Orgelsommer (DE), the Naumburg Orgelsommer (DE), the 300th Anniversary festival of the 1714 Silbermann organ in the Freiberg Cathedral (DE), the Dresden Music Festival (DE), the Hamburg International Music Festival (DE), the Orléans Organ Festival (FR), Bordeaux Festival d’Été (FR), the Lapua Festival (FI), the Lahti Organ Festival (FI), the Smarano Organ Academy (IT), the Göteborg International Organ Festival and Academy (SE), the Stockholm OrganSpace Festival (SE), the Max Reger Foundation of America’s 2015 Max Reger Festival (USA), the WFMT Bach Project in Chicago (USA).

Mr. Laube has two CD recordings available: the Stephen Paulus Grand Concerto on the Naxos label recorded with the Nashville Symphony, Giancarlo Guerrero, conducting, for which the Nashville Symphony received a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Compendium; and a solo recital recording on the Ambiente label recorded at the Stadtkirche in Nagold, Germany. He has collaborated with solo artists including Andreas Ottensamer, principal clarinet with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Chris Martin, principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic; and violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Many of Mr. Laube’s live performances have been featured on American Public Media’s “Pipedreams.”

In April 2019, Mr. Laube launched the documentary-style radio program, “All the Stops,” on the WFMT Radio Network Chicago, consisting of four two-hour programs which feature many of the world’s most famous organs in Europe and the United States and explore their unique histories and repertoire.

Mr. Laube is currently Associate Professor of Organ the Eastman School of Music. Laube previously taught at Eastman from 2013 to 2020, and then from 2020-2022 taught on the organ faculty at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany, where he succeeded his mentor, Ludger Lohmann. Since 2018 Laube additionally holds the post of the International Consultant in Organ Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. He is frequently asked to sit on the juries for important international organ competitions, including the 2021 Gottfried Silbermann International Competition in Freiberg (DE), and the Martini International Organ Competition in Groningen (NL) in 2022.
Mr. Laube is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Alan Morrison. The recipient of a William Fulbright fellowship, he continued his studies at the Conservatoire Rayonnement Régional in Toulouse with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen. He received his Masters at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany, where he studied with Ludger Lohmann, under the auspices of a DAAD Grant.
Nathan Laube is a leading performer and pedagogue who is beloved around the world.
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Jonathan Oldengarm
Montreal-based organist Jonathan Oldengarm is active as a recitalist, teacher, and church musician. His organ and harpsichord repertoire includes works from the earliest sources of keyboard music to the 21st-century avant-garde. He is also a versatile collaborative artist.

Dr. Oldengarm holds degrees in organ and harpsichord from Wilfrid Laurier and McGill Universities, and also studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart, Germany. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and sits on its professional certification committee. He is also a member of the Organs Committee of the Quebec Religious Heritage Commission (Patrimoine réligieux). Since 2008 he has been Director of Music at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Montreal, where the music programme includes a forty-voice semi-professional choir, a summer organ recital series, and several annual choir-orchestral oratorio presentations. Additionally, he is Instructor of Organ, and teaches keyboard skills, liturgical organ playing, accompaniment and improvisation at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.
Montreal-based organist Jonathan Oldengarm is active as a recitalist, teacher, and church musician.


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Manuel Piazza
Winner of the Royal Canadian College of Organists’ National Competition, Manuel Piazza currently serves as Interim Assistant Director of Music at Trinity Church, Copley Square in Boston. He completed graduate studies in organ at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and was organ scholar at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven, CT. In the 2019-20 academic year, he was organ scholar at Truro Cathedral in the UK. Manuel grew up in Toronto attending St. Michael's Choir School, studying at the University of Toronto with John Tuttle, and serving as organ scholar at Trinity College and The Cathedral Church of St. James.
Winner of the Royal Canadian College of Organists’ National Competition, Manuel Piazza currently serves as Interim Assistant Director of Music at Trinity Church, Copley Square in Boston.
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Christa Rakich
Organist Christa Rakich has performed widely throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. As a Fulbright Scholar, she studied for two years with Anton Heiller at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. She holds bachelor’s degrees in organ and German from Oberlin College & Conservatory (Phi Beta Kappa, 1975). Upon earning her master’s degree with honors from New England Conservatory, she was invited to join the faculty there and remained for many years, serving ultimately as department co-chair. She has also served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, Brandeis University, and the University of Connecticut, and as assistant university organist at Harvard.

A prize winner in numerous international organ competitions, Rakich has received particular acclaim for her interpretations of the music of J.S. Bach. With keyboardist Peter Sykes, she performed a complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard works in a series of 34 concerts named Tuesdays With Sebastian, which raised $20,000 for Boston-area charities.

With keyboardist Susan Ferré, Rakich is a founding performer of the Big Moose Bach Festival, which presents Bach cantatas, chamber music, and keyboard music each year in rural Berlin, New Hampshire.

Rakich also pursues an active interest in the clavichord, and she serves as vice president of the Boston Clavichord Society. Her 2018 performance for the society included Otto Singer’s transcription for two clavichords of Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”) with Erica Johnson.

Rakich maintains two artist residencies near her home in Connecticut: with the Congregational Church of Somers and the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in West Hartford. Past residencies have included the University of Pennsylvania and First Lutheran Church in Boston.
Organist Christa Rakich has performed widely throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.


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Rashaan Rori Allwood
Rashaan Rori Allwood is a multitalented musician based out of Toronto, currently pursuing a PhD in Composition. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance and a Master's degree in Organ Performance. Rashaan is the recipient of the 2022 Marilyn Mason Award in Organ Composition from the American Guild of Organists, who commissioned him to compose a new piece for solo organ to be premiered in Washington in 2022. Rashaan was also one of the ICOT winners for Pianoworks by Canadian composers in 2020. Rashaan is now director of music at St. Ansgar Lutheran Church, Toronto where he regularly premieres new works, directing choirs and various ensembles. As a soloist, he has toured across Europe, and performed at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, UK, St. Nikolai-Kirche in Leipzig, Germany and St. Pierre’s Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland.
Rashaan Rori Allwood is a multitalented musician based out of Toronto, currently pursuing a PhD in Composition.
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David Simon
David Simon enjoys a diverse career of music teaching and performing. He is a music instructor at St. Michael's Choir School and runs an online private studio which includes students from coast to coast in North America. One of the few instructors in Canada of organ improvisation, he also teaches music theory, history, analysis, and piano. As an organist, he has played recitals and accompanied choir tours across North America, Europe, the U.K., and Russia and has given premieres with the Toronto and New Haven Symphony Orchestras. An experienced liturgical musician, he plays for weekly masses at St. Michael's Cathedral-Basilica.

David's achievement in organ performance and improvisation have been recognized in competition and examination. In 2019, he won first prize in the Royal Canadian College of Organists national competition, and won first prize and audience prize in the University of Michigan international organ improvisation competition. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists (FRCCO) and received the Healey Willan Prize for top national achievement on the Fellowship examination. David is completing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Yale University, having studied with Thomas Murray and Jeff Brillhart.
David Simon enjoys a diverse career of music teaching and performing.


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Aaron Tan
Aaron Tan is a Canadian organist, engineer, and pianist. He has won numerous noteworthy contests and scholarships on both instruments including First Prize at the 2021 Canadian International Organ Competition as well as First Prize and Audience Prize at the prestigious AGO National Young Artists (NYACOP) competition in 2018. Other competition prizes and awards include the Toronto RCCO Young Organists Competition, the Osborne Organ Competition of the Summer Institute of Church Music (Ontario), the RCCO’s National Organ Playing Competition, the Charlotte Hoyt Bagnall Scholarship for Church Musicians, the Lilian Forsyth Scholarship, the West Chester University Organ Competition, the Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition, the Sursa American Organ Competition, and the XVI Poland International Piano Festival Competition. His primary musical tutelage has been with John Tuttle, David Palmer and Joel Hastings.

Mr. Tan studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester New York and has served as Organ Scholar at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Detroit, Michigan, Artist in Residence at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit, Assistant Organist at Christ Church Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Organ Scholar at the Church of the Resurrection, New York City. He is currently Director of Music at St. Alban’s Catholic Church in Rochester, New York.

Aaron also holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Michigan and worked there as a postdoctoral researcher after earning his degree, studying polymer thin films.

More information about Aaron’s musical interests and activities can be found at www.AaronTan.org.
Aaron Tan is a Canadian organist, engineer, and pianist.
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Roy Lee
Roy Lee has been Carillonneur at Metropolitan United Church, Toronto, since 2016. He also performs regularly and teaches on the University of Toronto’s Soldiers’ Tower Carillon. Born in Hong Kong, he spent his teenage years in Vancouver, and was an undergraduate student at Yale University when he learned to play the carillon. In 2000, he passed his professional certification exam and became a Carillonneur Member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA). He also holds a diploma with great distinction from the Royal Carillon School of Mechelen, Belgium. He has performed guest recitals in Canada, the US, Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Roy served on the GCNA’s Board from 2016 to 2022 and was its president from 2019 to 2021. He is currently chair of the GCNA's Emerging Artist Grants Committee, and has previously served as chair of the GCNA's committees for Events and the Associate Carillonneur Examination. Roy received his B.A. (history) from Yale and his J.D. from the University of Toronto. He is a lawyer by day, plays the organ at his home church, and enjoys curling recreationally.
Roy Lee has been Carillonneur at Metropolitan United Church, Toronto, since 2016.


Prelude and Postlude Artists

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Stephen Boda
Stephen Boda holds a Master of Music degree from Yale University and a diploma from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied organ performance with Thomas Murray and improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart. Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Stephen graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto where he studied organ with John Tuttle. Stephen completed his studies in organ performance at McGill University with Hans Ola Ericsson in 2016. He is also a skilled pianist, having studied privately with Valerie Tryon.

Winner of the 2015 Royal Canadian College of Organists’ National Organ Competition, Stephen continues to perform in concert throughout Canada and the United States. He has collaborated as an accompanist with numerous choirs and ensembles in the Greater Toronto Area and as a performer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

He is the winner of the 2016 Howard Fairclough Organ Competition hosted by the Hamilton RCCO and the 2014 Osborne Organ Competition hosted by the Summer Institute of Church Music. He is also the recipient of a number of awards, including the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship, the Robert Baker Scholarship through Yale University, the Schulich Scholarship through McGill University and the Arthur Redsell Scholarship through the University of Toronto.

Stephen is currently the Principal Organist at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church and has held organist positions in Toronto at Grace Church on-the-Hill and St. Paul’s Bloor Street, St. John the Evangelist in Hamilton, Ontario, and Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien, Connecticut.
Stephen Boda holds a Master of Music degree from Yale University and a diploma from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied organ performance with Thomas Murray and improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart.
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Matthew Coons
Matthew Coons is an award-winning pianist and organist. He has been the Principal Accompanist for the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir since 2014 and was a former accompanist of Counterpoint Chorale. Prior to his studies in Toronto, he studied harpsichord privately with Michael Jarvis in Hamilton, who deepened his appreciation for historical instruments and performance practice. He also studied voice with Carolyn Sinclair. Initial studies in organ began with Paul Chappel (Dundas). His main organ teachers have been Mark Toews and Patricia Wright. He has participated in masterclasses with Paul Jacobs (Juilliard), Todd Wilson, and Thomas Trotter (U.K.). In 2008, he placed first prize at the Young Organists Competition in Toronto. In 2009, he placed second in the Canadian National Organ Playing Competition in 2009. During his time at U of T, he held the position of Organ Scholar at Toronto’s Metropolitan United Church. Matthew has served as Organist at a number of churches in Toronto including Grace Church On-The-Hill, Runnymede United, and Dewi Sant Welsh United Church. He also has a deep love for the piano and has been fortunate enough to have studied and performed with Latvian-Canadian pianist Arthur Ozolins.
Matthew Coons is an award-winning pianist and organist. He has been the Principal Accompanist for the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir since 2014 and was a former accompanist of Counterpoint Chorale.


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Cara Halpin
Cara Halpin is Music Director & Organist at St. John the Baptist Norway Anglican Church in Toronto. She holds a Master of Music from the University of Toronto.

Cara studied piano with Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson before completing her Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Ontario. She continued her studies at the University of Toronto obtaining a Master of Music in music education and choral literature. Cara is an alumnus of the Toronto Children’s Chorus and succeeded Jean Ashworth Bartle as the music teacher at Blythwood Public School in the TDSB, where she conducted both the children and youth choirs. She’s currently the Music Director & Organist at St. John the Baptist Norway Anglican Church in Toronto.
Cara Halpin is Music Director & Organist at St. John the Baptist Norway Anglican Church in Toronto. She holds a Master of Music from the University of Toronto.
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Richard Hansen
Originally from Windsor, Ontario, Richard Hansen began formal organ studies at age thirteen under Victor Batten. He has since studied with David Palmer at the University of Windsor, Ian Sadler in Stratford, Ontario and Helga Hoffman in Stuttgart, Germany. In June of 2009, Richard traveled to Vancouver, for the purpose of organ study with Canadian concert organist, Denis Bedard. In January 2010, as one of the accompanists for the Cathedral Singers of Ontario trip to London, England, Richard accompanied the choir at St. John’s Parish Church, Hyde Park, and played the Organ Prelude before the choir’s final Choral Evensong, in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Throughout the 40 + years of his Church Music career, Richard has been Organist and Choir Director at numerous churches in Windsor, Sault Ste. Marie, London, Victoria, St. Marys and Burlington. The postings have been at both the Parish Church and Cathedral levels. In 2013, he accepted the invitation to become the Organist and Choir Director at St. James’s Anglican Church, in Dundas, Ontario.

As an organ soloist, Richard has given recitals in venues from coast to coast in Canada, and has performed in the Netherlands, Germany, England, and Lithuania.

In 1998, Richard was conferred the Diploma of Associate by the Royal Canadian College of Organists.
Originally from Windsor, Ontario, Richard Hansen began formal organ studies at age thirteen under Victor Batten.


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Conrad Gold
Conrad Gold holds B. Mus. and M. Mus. degrees in organ from Oberlin College and McGill University, where he studied with David Boe and William Porter. He attended Smarano Early Keyboards Academy in Italy to further his interest in historical keyboard instruments and baroque improvisation.

As a church musician, Conrad has held positions in United Church of Canada, Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Catholic and Presbyterian Denominations. In Toronto, he was the regular organist for monthly Vespers services at St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica and occasionally plays services at other Toronto churches such as Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, St. James Cathedral and St. Thomas Huron Street.

As an organ and piano accompanist, he works with the Hart House Singers at University of Toronto and Voices Chamber Choir. Past collaborations include Cantabile Chamber Singers and Espressivo Singers of Durham Region.
Conrad Gold holds B. Mus. and M. Mus. degrees in organ from Oberlin College and McGill University, where he studied with David Boe and William Porter.
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Sebastian Moreno
Sebastian Moreno (MMus, BFA, CRCCO) is the Director of Music and Organist at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Oakville. A native of Mississauga, Sebastian has previously held positions at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, Toronto, and Hopedale Presbyterian, Oakville. He holds an MMus in musicology and BFA (honours) from York University. His thesis, Music Education for Seminarians in Toronto’s Christian Theological Colleges and Seminaries (2021), under Prof. Stephanie Martin, is the first study of its kind and is a cross-denominational perspective on contemporary music education.

Sebastian is an active member of the Canadian organist community where he is President of the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO) Toronto Centre. As a solo and collaborative musician, he has received several awards in organ performance including the Doug Wiseman Performance Prize (RCCO) and Patricia and Robert Martin Performance Award (York University).
Sebastian Moreno (MMus, BFA, CRCCO) is the Director of Music and Organist at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Oakville.